This day we visit the Sapporo Bankei Ski Resort! We had gone for snowboarding lessons before we came to Japan. We attended 2 lessons at Snow City, and met Edwin and Ling Min who were taking lessons too. But I digress, let's return to
Sapporo Bankei (Ban.K) Resort. It's a pretty small resort very near to Sapporo, which was great for us because we were working with limited time and couldn't afford the 3 or more hours to n fro the bigger resorts like Niseko or Rurutsu.
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| Brekkie |
To get to the ski resort, we took the subway to Maruyamakoen Station and took a short walk to the bus terminal to wait for the Bankei bus. The distance from Sapporo to Ban.K is about 20-30min.
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| Bus station |
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| In front of bus station |
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| In front of bus station P2 |
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| Ban.K bus schedule |
Spotted a very cool looking snowboarder girl in red pants travelling on her own to the resort via the bus.
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| Thick snow! |
We had to take a short walk from the bus stop to Ban.K resort that involved some slope/stair climbing.
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| Hidden slope to the resort |
After some careful climbing, we reached Ban.K YAAAY.
This is a pretty small resort and definitely less touristy. I dare say we were slightly overwhelmed and feeling out of place until we got engaged by an English speaking ski instructor who wanted to take us for a ski class. We intended to snowboard and so rejected her, but suddenly she informed us that she could also teach us snowboarding. With no other better option, we decided to take her snowboarding class.
With her help, we managed to settle on a 7-hour package that came with attire, equipment and meal ticket. We had to purchase the gloves. The instructor also helped us with selecting the snowboarding attire and brought us out to the slopes.
Beautiful!
We went through about 1.5hrs of snowboarding orientation. Honestly, it was so unmanageable. We were just slipping and sliding all over the place uncontrollably and at that moment, I couldn't see the value of having taken that one snowboarding class at Snow City at all. Lol. Anyway, I really appreciated having the support of the instructor even though she didn't seem that stable on a snowboard. After some orientation, she left us to our own devices and so we whipped out our devices lol.
After we were done, we decided on our action plan, which was to conquer the mini slope where we were at.
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| View from top of our mini slope |
For the next few hours, we slid/fell/wobbled down the slope and what we did can essentially be summarised by these pictures.
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| Climb up slope |
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| Strap on to board |
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| Try our darnest to stand up |
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| Enjoy the view on the way down |
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| Landing |
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| Climb up slope to repeat |
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| Rest and stone |
I am glad to say that after a few hours of effort, we managed to board/slide down in a respectable manner. Video evidence attached below lol.
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| YK |
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| Me |
Cold weather and exercise really helps with building an appetite. When we got peckish, we went off to the food hall to redeem our meal tickets. I remember passing by a group of school boys who were super excited about eating Ramen. Lol. The foodhall was pretty much like a cafeteria complete with friendly cafeteria aunties.
I got the miso ramen and YK got the yakiniku bowl. I thought that YK's yakiniku bowl was more outstanding but both were seriously satisfying. I really love the thicker noodles characteristic of Hokkaido's miso ramen.
Yk discovered a great pile of snow for lounging in and so we lounged in that snow pile for a while...
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| YK's snowpile |
Then had a mini snow scooping fight and got each other butt deep in snow.
More lounging and enjoying the night view of the slopes.
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| Seriously comfortable |
The resort would be open till 10pm but we didn't want to get out too late and had to return our rented rquipment. So we went off, returned the attire and equipment and proceeded to the bus stop for the Ban.k bus.
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| Bye bye Ban.K |
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| Bus stop the little lit up box |
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| The hidden stairs on the slope |
When we reached the bus stop, we realised we forgot to check an important thing: the bus timing... The next bus was more than an hour later...
I suggested to walk out to the main road on foot since it would take about 30min according to Google map. Yk agreed and we got started.
It was OK at first, with designated footpaths. We were joking that we were following in the footsteps of those before us.
Then the snow got really high, like up to the knee and it became tough to trudge through, as well as slightly dangerous because we wouldn't know if there was a pot hole or whatever. So we moved out to walk on the road which presented a whole new set of issues: slippery and having to steer clear of speeding vehicles: buses and lorries were especially scary.
To top it off, I realised we were walking through a cemetery while referring to Google maps. >.<
Seriously, that was not something I needed to know while dodging vehicles on a slippery dark road with no other human being around. I didn't share the info with Yk cos no point also. Seeeeee... Scary loh...
After what seemed like eternity, we reached a residential area and I felt more relaxed walking past homes. I was also thankful that we always had sufficient space at the side of the road to jump to when the big vehicles approached, and did not meet any speeding big vehicles around road bends. Thank goodness!
We eventually reached our bus stop with much happiness, relief and satisfaction: Miyanomori 2 Jo 17 Chome, and a bunch of young girls came out from a house to wait for the bus, adding to our relief. Lol.
Safely on the bus.. Phewwwww.. Can you believe it was only like 7pm or so when we got on the bus? It really gets dark real fast during winter.
We were moving towards dinner at Garaku, a restaurant well known for its yummy soup curry. When we reached, we realised the queue stretched down the stairs and out onto the street.
We joined the queue! And eventually reached the top...
And into the restaurant
Finally!! The soup curry was SUPER, and we loved the vegetables, the curry, the meat, the rice, even that lemon slice. It was a great dinner to end the day! Details on our meal at Garaku here.
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| Super yum |
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| Thank you Garaku! |
After that it was back to the hotel to pack because we were checking out to leave for Noboribetsu and Hakodate the next day!
Day 4 - Noboribetsu Hell Valley / Mt Hakodate
